Living When Prophecy Becomes Current Events

November 11, 2019

Living When Prophecy Becomes Current Events

November 4, 2019

Living When Prophecy Becomes Current Events

October 28, 2019

The spiritual madness of our times can be seen in current events. In a week when a Bible translator in Cameroon was murdered and his wife’s hand cut off, the talk in the USA is of a pastor sitting in the seat of scorn demeaning, denigrating, and dismissing a teacher of the Bible who happens to be a woman.

John MacArthur this week made a pithy statement about Beth Moore to “go home” before an room echoing with loud guffaws from those who understood the meaning of the remark. In fact, many who heard this understood its meaning to be that a woman’s role is to stay home, have babies, and run the kitchen. He then added unchallenged accusations of narcissism and equated her skills to those of a woman hawking products on a shopping channel.

I find statements like this to be deeply discouraging and an embarrassment to those of us who hold complementarian views. His tone evidences male bias and colors all of us with stains that make it hard for people to see the Spirit and the truth of what God has said. In a seeming effort to uphold the truth of God’s Word, his statement in fact undermines it. It is a step too far. It is not worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One way to recognize whether a person is speaking by the Spirit of God, by the flesh, or by the spirit of this world is that the Holy Spirit never goes a step too far. The Spirit of God never upholds truth at the expense of grace. It also never, as so many do today, upholds grace at the expense of truth. The church has always had the problem of people who step too far with God’s Word. John MacArthur is not unique in this. I have heard other Bible teachers who I respect go a step too far. They do it in ways that are not worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, I affirm the teaching that the role of teaching/ruling elder in the church is reserved for men. I don’t apologize for that, as it is God’s Word and not mine. However, the application of this truth is exclusive to weekly worship services and teaching/ruling elders. When the Apostle Paul instructs women who pray or prophesy in worship services to do so with their heads covered (1 Corinthians 11:4-6), it seems obvious to Paul that women in worship services were praying and prophesying. He addressed who was to oversee that the preaching of the Word was in accordance with truth, but did not exclude women from roles in public worship services.

The arguments given to support this by John MacArthur and others seem rooted in the idea that the ability to rightly handle, understand, or teach the Word of God is exclusive to males. As if woman have no insights to give the rest of us in understanding and applying the Word of God, because this is exclusive to male genes. This is a shocking step too far. It is not worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know from the Bible that every believer has an anointing of the Holy Spirit and thus is able to understand the Bible (1 John 2:20). We know that the one who illuminates our minds to understand the Word of God is the Holy Spirit, and that we all, male and female, have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). We know that in this age, the Holy Spirit is given to all disciples of the Lord Jesus. Peter preached in Acts 2:17-18, “… I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” As we understand from Scripture, another word for prophesying is preaching. Preaching is to declare the Word of God with authority. Clearly this gift of preaching is not exclusive to men but given to females and males. It is a step too far to declare that this is only for men. It is not worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ. The question is not whether women have been given this spiritual gift and calling, but where it is best to be used. I personally have benefited greatly from insights into Scripture by many women, including Beth Moore.

Another aspect of this which is a step too far is the spirit in which it is given. To demean, denigrate, and dismiss because you don’t agree with someone is such a violation of Scripture, it is shocking to hear it from a man who claims to know and stand for the Word of God. Ephesians 4:29-32 and 5:1-2 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”

Whatever may be said of words like “go home”, they do not build up. They tear down. The words do not give grace to those who hear, but give a kind of mocking and dismissive contempt. To compare a woman of God teaching the Word of God to a woman hawking things on a shopping network is not kind, it is not tenderhearted, it is not loving, and it is not true. It is not worthy of a man who offers himself as a teacher to pastors. It is a step too far that grieves the Holy Spirit. It is not worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Even if we aim to correct an error in some aspect of teaching and application, it is always to be done in a spirit of humbleness, kindness, with an evident desire to correct and restore. The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy this way in 2 Timothy 2:24-26, “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” I am not saying Beth Moore needs correction. However, if a fellow believer does, it should still be done in a spirit that is kind and gentle. It is hard not to see in these comments those who are quarrelsome and frankly joined in the Devil’s work in dividing, destroying and driving away. It is a step too far. It is not worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Another step too far is to presume to be able to accurately judge the heart and motivations of another. To accuse someone of being narcissistic is to judge and condemn a heart and to take a place no one should have in evaluating another (1 Corinthians 4:5). We should at times point out behaviors that contrast with Scripture (which I am trying to do in this post), but to judge the heart and motivation of another is a step too far. No one has the right to take this place but the Lord Jesus. All of this criticism of a narcissistic spirit comes from someone sitting in seat of judgment, making scornful comments to the guffaws of the audience, in clips that have gone viral and stand uncorrected. This raises the same questions of the one who gave them as those that he and his partners on stage raised about Beth Moore. It is embarrassing and not worthy of a man known for his teaching of the Word of God. It diminishes and demeans the Word of God that he aims to uphold.

This also points out the danger that Paul warns about in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “This knowledge puffs up but love builds up.” When knowledge becomes a club that we feel free to use to demean, denigrate, and dismiss others, we have left the truth of Jesus. It is a step too far. It evidences a male mindset of superiority, not from the seat of a teacher, but from the seat of scorn. It joins the spirit of the accuser of the brethren, which already has too many voices.

I pray this blog is not given — or perceived to be given — in the same spirit that I have said falls far short of a mature person of faith. I hope it brings reflection, correction and repentance. I pray that those who see this for what it is — the evidence of male bias and discrimination against women — will realize that this is not the truth of Scripture or the way it should be used. It is a step too far.

There is only one Lord in the church, and that is Jesus. There is only one who renews the minds by the Word of God, and that is the Holy Spirit. Every part of service and teaching in the church is important. In a week where a brother was murdered for his service of Christ and his wife’s hand cut off, let’s understand who the true enemy is. The church is to be a safe place. Teaching, correction is to be done in love, with a spirit of building up. Let us teach the Word of God as Jesus did in the perfect balance of grace and truth (John 1:17).

Living When Prophecy Becomes Current Events

October 21, 2019

We live in a time when everything is called conspiracy. In the political world of the USA we are deeply divided. What makes this so awful is that we don’t trust there are any reliable sources for truth, for fact. Each side accuses the other of conspiracy. President Trump and his allies have expressed there is the conspiracy of a ‘Deep State’ within government, supported by the media, with the purpose to defeat his own agenda and remove him from office. They have developed the concept of ‘Fake News’ and make it seem that everything mainstream media presents to us is biased, distorted, or false. To them Congress has no legitimate right to oversight and investigation because they are biased, only seeking to destroy Trump. To them Federal agencies like the FBI, CIA, and State Department are full of people engaged in this conspiracy against Trump, and thus, are not to be believed.

Those among the Democrats also express views of conspiracy. They promote the belief that it was Russian efforts to elect Trump that tipped the election to him. They question the source of Trump’s wealth and its influence in his decisions. They bring accusations of abuse of power and of incompetence.

The purpose of conspiracy theories is to create mistrust and fear. It is to cause us to fear a future if the other side is in control. It causes us not to listen to others because we do not believe they are telling us the truth. It leads to an almost blind loyalty because there is such mistrust of the bias of the information given to us.

Closely aligned to this conspiracy theory approach is a second argument that what my side has done wrong does not compare to what the other side has done. Everyone is doing things that aren’t right, but that is just the way it is in politics. The wrong my side has done doesn’t compare to the wrongs the other side has done. So again, we have no standards of truth or right practices to live by. Everyone is doing wrong, but I’m okay because my wrong isn’t as bad as the wrongs of the other side.

If this rampant spread of belief in conspiracy and justification of my side’s wrongs compared to the wrongs of the other side stayed exclusively within politics that would be one thing. However, this same strategy is being used in how to view the Bible and its teachings. We see today those that say the Bible is not reliable because it was written by flawed people with cultural bias. They say the clear teaching of the Bible on issues like marriage, sexuality, or holiness are not what we are to live by today. New interpretations state that teachings on sexuality, marriage, and creation by God came from people who have read that into the Bible. One leading theologian changes the very meaning of the atonement. Another writes off the whole Old Testament as not reliable and not for the church today. Others accept that sexual behaviors can be sinful, but that everybody sins, and we should not draw so much attention to sexual sins compared to others like pride, gluttony, gossip. Others write off hell as not being compatible with the truth that God is love. Thus, Christians lose confidence in the Bible and how it has been taught for centuries. We lose accountability for sin because we say everyone sins and mine isn’t as bad as others. Many believe sin doesn’t matter because God loves us no matter what we do. We are left with a church that lives as the generations in the time of Judges, with every person doing what is right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

The Bible clearly and prophetically speaks to those who view that everything is conspiracy or who say that everyone sins, so we shouldn’t identify some over others. God says through the prophet Isaiah, “For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ‘Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him shall you honor as holy. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread.’” (Isaiah 8:11-13)

We don’t need to fear a conspiracy of others. We need to fear God. We need to honor His Word, the Bible, knowing that Jesus endorsed the Old Testament down to its smallest letter and the smallest parts of a letter (Matthew 5:17-20). Let us remember that the Bible defines sins that, if people continue to practice them, they will not be saved (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Let us remember that God has called us to holiness in conduct because He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Let us remember that the grace of Jesus has not come to enable us to continue in sin, but to find freedom from its power and freedom to walk in His grace and truth.

In our politics let us remember God is working His will among the nations as history rapidly moves to the crowning of the Lord Jesus Christ as King and Lord of all. Let us stop advancing the conspiracy theories so freely offered and believed. Let us use common sense and wisdom from the Spirit of God to sort it through and not overreact. Let us hold leaders accountable to standards of right conduct regardless of what others have done. Let us relax politically and focus on what we are to do, which is to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all who will hear. Let us live with bold confidence because God is working His will and because our hope for the future is certain. Let us hear the voice of God through another passage in Isaiah, “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God and there’s no other; I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” (Isaiah 46:8-11).

Living When Prophecy Becomes Current Events

October 14, 2019

Living When Prophecy Becomes Current Events

October 7, 2019

As we experience the news these days, it seems like we are the generation that has death stalking us. Apart from the soon return of Christ, we will all pass through death, so the fact that we die is not extraordinary. What seems extraordinary is the way death surrounds us in increasingly unexpected ways. In the past week we have witnessed a raging gunman in Texas taking lives with seeming randomness. We have seen a raging fire on a diving excursion kill the 34 below deck in berths that became fiery tombs. We have seen a raging hurricane in the Bahamas all but obliterate buildings with a death toll that seems certain to rise into the hundreds. These events make us realize there are no safe places and no ways to protect ourselves or our loved ones from death that seems to be stalking us.

The Lord Jesus and the Bible warned us it would be like this in the times immediately before the Lord Jesus takes His church home, beginning the seven years of the Great Tribulation. Jesus said that the time between His first and second comings will be marked by wars, diseases, famines, and earthquakes and other natural disasters.  However, He said that it will be like birth pangs; the closer to the end, the more rapid and severe the labor pains. He said in Matthew 24:8, “All these are but the beginning of birth pangs.” The Lord Jesus specifically mentioned nations perplexed at the roaring and tossing of the sea and a feeling of distress and helplessness over our powerlessness to change it. Certainly we experienced this the past week with hurricane Dorian.

As Christians living in this season of history, the Lord Jesus wants us to live in His peace. As we consider the reality of death, we realize in the Bible there is an enormous difference between dying and perishing. Christians pass through death into the presence of the Lord Jesus, while those without Christ perish, held in torment in Hades awaiting the final Day of Judgment and eternity in torment separated from God.

The Lord Jesus drew the distinction between dying and perishing in a teaching in Luke 13:1-5. The teaching came from the news that some people from Galilee had been killed by Pilate as he offered their blood in pagan worship. In another recent event, 18 people had been killed by a tower of Siloam falling on them in Jerusalem. It is here that the Lord Jesus drew the distinction between dying and perishing. Here is the account:

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  Luke 13:1-5

Why did Jesus use the word perish? Perish means to be destroyed. Jesus didn’t use it to mean the ending of existence. He used it to describe being forever separated from God and assigned a place of eternal judgment. He put it this way in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”

The Lord Jesus left no question of eternal torment as He said in Matthew 25:46, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The Lord
Jesus stated there is an equivalence of eternity both for judgment and for eternal life with God and the Lord Jesus.

What does the Lord Jesus mean when He calls us to repent? To repent is a total turning of direction in life. It is turning from sin and a self directed life to trusting in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and following Him as the Lord of life. It is the promise of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Notice the promise of Jesus that those who believe in Him will not perish. The word I love in this verse is the word “whoever” because I know I can put my name in that truth. I am one who is fully trusting in the Lord Jesus for salvation and seeking to follow Him, however imperfectly, as the Lord of my life. How important it is for you to make sure you are fully trusting Jesus for salvation and following Him in loving worship, trust, and obedience as the Lord of your life.

Thus a Christian does not fear death though it seems to be stalking this generation. A Christian is confident that nothing, including death, will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). A Christian is confident that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-7). A Christian is confident that death is not random for a Christian, but that all our days are already measured out by God (Psalm 139:16). A Christian is confident in the face of death because we know He will not leave our side, and His grace is always enough (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It is the reality of people perishing if they don’t have faith in Christ that compels a Christian to go into all the world and proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to all who will listen. It is why Christians today in many places go to share the Gospel even at risk of imprisonment or death. The real tragedy is not that people die from gunmen or fires or storms, but that people die without the Lord Jesus, heading into eternal judgment. The Lord Jesus wants us to understand this because the reality of death stalking us as a generation would lead to fear if we didn’t have confidence that our lives are safe in Jesus. The Lord Jesus wants us to know so that we will with urgency proclaim the Gospel to all we can while still there is time. We can live with fearless abandon to the cause of Christ because our future is secure, and yet we know that God is not willing that any perish, and that He wills that all people groups and nations will have a chance to hear and respond to the Gospel (Matthew 24:14, 2 Peter 3:9).